Star Fox: A Deadly Labor
by XxSanitariumxX
Summary: A short story of the day Mracus McCloud was born and the haunting memory that was burned in Fox's mind forever. Set after Command, one shot.


"WE'RE LOSING HER!" a nurse shouted.

"Come on ma'am just hold in there!" the doctor begged. The woman giving birth had been going through the longest and the most painful labor he had ever seen in all of his twenty years of practice. She was weak now, sickly and almost dead already. If they didn't deliver the child soon both of them were going to die.

"Please save my baby!" the woman begged.

"I'm doing all I can ma'am but I need you to be strong! Now please give me another push."

The woman shrieked in agony as she fulfilled the doctor's request. She knew that deep down she was going to die but what gave her strength was fighting so that her son could live.

Finally some results, the child's head was now visible but time was running short. "Okay ma'am just one more and we're done."

"I… I can't." the woman sobbed. The last one took everything that she had. There was nothing she could do, she and the baby was going to die. Just as she began to give up the man standing by her side the entire twenty four hours said.

"Please, Krystal don't let our child die!"

Krystal stared into those green spheres she had fallen in love with all those years ago. Every time they bore into her she found inner solace, strength and the will to fight on no matter the odds. Those eyes watched her like an eagle and kept her safe as she progressed into one of the Lylat's best pilots. Those very same eyes she hoped their son would have, so that one day they to could shine like their father's and her husband's.

"Okay Fox… I'll… try…." She panted. With a final ditch effort and blood curdling wail Krystal poured every ounce of life into her final wisp of strength into the last push.

"Good keep at it! He's coming ma'am." The doctor shouted with joy now that there was a chance of life for both her and the child. If worse came to worse one of them would die if not both but now there was hope. The newborn came slowly but surely and in just a few more seconds everything would be in the clear.

All the machines hooked into Krystal began to go haywire at the same time warning of an imminent bodily shut down.

"Shit we're losing her! Please Ma'am stay with me we're almost done!"

Fox felt her grasp fade fast. The entire time he was there holding it, the entire time he was at her side and now she was failing. "Krystal stay with me come on. Don't do it for me do it for Marcus!"

Krystal looked up at Fox her eyes and cheeks were damp with tears "Marcus?" She asked.

"Yes Krystal just as you wanted, our baby Marcus! Your fur, my eyes…. Please just hold on!" Fox begged. Fighting the tears back was harder than facing the wounds war left on the time ravaged vulpine. Even though he was thirty five he already had a patch of white fur where a few weeks ago it used to be the thick orange coat Krystal adored just as much as Fox adored her deep oceanic blue fur.

"Fox I can't do it." she whimpered. "I love you." She said as the alarms went dead and so did the heart beat monitor.

"Krystal? KRYSTAL!" Fox shouted. Her hand would have fallen away had he not been clasping it so firmly. "Krystal don't give out on me please!" he begged, rivers of tears coursing down his face. It was like a pain that pierced him deeper then when his mother died when he was only four and had only a few precious memories of her, when his father died, and when Peppy finally gave out strapped to all those machines like some medical experiment. "Krystal! Krystal!" Fox shouted.

The nurse put her hand on his shoulder "Mr. McCloud I'm sorry but she's-" Fox stopped her from telling him what he already knew by slapping her hand away.

"Krystal." He said once more, his head resting on hers. He felt the swirl of emotions play with his soul, anger for not being able to do anything, regret for ever convincing her to bear his child when she thought it was a bad idea since they were not of the same planet or the exact species, and despair because the one love of his life, the one shot at anything worth having in life was gone. Died right in front of him and there was nothing he could do.

The doctor heard her pass but there was nothing he could do, a certain point was reached in just a few seconds when he knew there was no hope for her but perhaps the child. He managed to pull the child from the grips of death shortly after her passing and once the procedures were completed the blue little baby boy was wrapped in an equally blue blanket. He stopped wailing like most babies and moved to whimpering rather suddenly.

"Put him in the nursery, have him monitored twenty four-" the doctor said but was interrupted.

"No!" Fox nearly shouted "I want to see my son." the doctor was hesitant at first but Fox began to growl "Let me see my son."

The doctor nodded and the nurse handed Fox the child. Fox stared at the little vulpine. He was blue just like he and Krystal hoped, as for his eyes it was still too soon to know but Fox hoped that Krystal's wish would be granted. He looked from the child to her.

She looked peaceful now, almost like she was asleep which tore another gash in Fox's heart. He cringed but held back the anguish. "Marcus." He said before he handed him back to the nurse.

The nurse left the room and the doctor hesitated "Do you wish to be alone with her?" Fox was back to hovering over his dearly departed and merely nodded. The doctor left without another word.

Her face was so beautiful even with the tear trails down her once warm cheeks. A long time ago before most of the darkest times in his life he found that face hovering hundreds of feet off the ground and fell for it immediately. From that day on he knew it was her that could bring him from the darkest pits in one piece but now the darkest pit got her and he was alone to care for their newborn son.

"Krystal, I'm so sorry." He sobbed. He blamed himself and for the remainder of his years he always would. He had spent so much time with her, got to learn everything about her, her deepest fears, brightest dreams, ancient customs and beliefs and at times it was almost like he could talk to her with his mind like he to was telepathic.

Fox kissed her on the lips one last time, those very lips turned him into a senseless wreck the first time they met his cheek. His throat began to go coarse and speaking became impossible as he began to hiccup too much so instead of saying he thought 'I'll love you no matter what Krystal. I'm sure you're in a better place and god how I wish I was there with you. But I have to stay here, Marcus needs me and he needs you to but….' He stopped, just thinking about poor baby Marcus growing up without a mother like he did shattered his core even more.

He pulled away from the kiss and wiped his eyes. "Good by Krys-"

A tiny beep terrified Fox more than anything else had in his life. Not even Andross' dying screams compared to the tiniest little beep. At first he thought he imagined it but it was followed by another, then another then another.

"DOC GET IN HERE!" Fox shouted as loudly as he could.

The old feline ran in as fast as he could, the door barely stayed on the hinges as it flung open "What is it Mr. McCloud?"

Fox couldn't speak and for awhile the only sound in the room was a slightly annoying beeping noise. But then that beeping sound meant there was life in what ever was strapped to it. "She's alive!?!" he shouted. The shock wore off quickly however because the doctor shrugged off any sense of impossibility and went to work immediately to make sure that the Krystal's sudden resurrection wasn't in vain.

_**Two years later…**_

Little baby Marcus ran everywhere now, he was the cutest little thing with his blue fur, gorgeous green eyes and that fighter's spirit he got form his mother. He had already began to show signs of telekinesis because last Christmas he knew what he was getting before he unwrapped the box.

"It's a plane!" he shouted just as his hands touched the paper.

Fox stared at him agape "That's the fourth time!"

"Did you let him peak?" a female's voice asked. She wasn't in the video yet because she was the one holding the camera that filmed the movie Fox was watching with Marcus snuggled on his still firm chest over the years.

"No I didn't!" Fox said. "Okay Marcus what is this one?" Fox asked passing him a smaller box.

"Mommies smell!" he said because he didn't know the perfume quite yet.

Fox chuckled a bit and rubbed Marcus' head. It was at that time Fox thanked god yet again that he didn't give him mommies' "special" gift to guess.

"Fox is he asleep?" a woman asked from the next room.

"Yes." Fox said quietly so not to disturb Marcus' slumber.

"Alright go put him to bed and meet me in the bedroom." The woman said rather slyly.

Fox began to blush even after all these years he still had problems with women being sly around him. Fox quickly put Marcus to bed and headed to his room. The room had white walls, blue drapes, blue bed sheets covering the king sized bed but the carpet was a light tan color, almost orange but not quite.

"Are you in here?" Fox asked.

The woman stepped into the light from the dark bedroom on the right of the room. She was wearing the special gift Fox got her last Christmas. A black, lacy, and slightly revealing dress that showed every inch and curve of the amazing body she also kept to this day.

Fox's head began to spin, heart beat quicken and face go beat red. "You look err uh."

"Even after all these years you can't keep from blushing." The woman giggled.

"Well you can hardly blame me, you are the most amazing vixen in existence." Fox said trying to keep from going any redder if possible.

"Aw thank you Fox." The vixen said as she sprawled out on the bed in a come hither pose. "Now why don't you join me?"

"As you wish Krystal." Fox said closing the door behind him. Fox crawled onto the bed with Krystal and kissed her body all the way up to her lips. "I love you so much." Fox said. A flash of Krystal dying two years ago flashed across his mind and he kissed her again just to make sure she was actually alive.

when they broke apart Krystal pushed him off her and pinned him "Fox it's all right I'm here and I'm not going anywhere."

"I know but I was so scared that you were actually…."

Krystal kissed him before saying "I would never leave you Fox not after what you said. I would never let you raise Marcus alone. If it were up to you he'd eat ice cream for breakfast and pancakes for lunch! It would be a disaster."

"One time! It was one time! And it wasn't ice cream it was chocolate cake."

"And that's any better then ice cream?" Krystal scoffed.

"I guess not… wait you heard me? How?" Fox asked.

"Well I can't explain it but I heard you just before I crossed over. Your voice reached me just in time. Maybe all this excess time we have spent together had it's effect? It was so very reassuring to know that someone wouldn't let me go without a struggle."

"But Krystal I thought you were gone, your heart stopped, the doctor gave up… I was so certain that you had left me."

Krystal kissed him once more. "Not in a million years." She said as she turned off the lamp giving the only light to the room.


End file.
